Personal bests

After a long plateau, finally was able to do 4.5 miles in under 36 minutes today. I've traditionally been slow, so had focused on improving speed maintenance for a while but hadn't gotten past 4 miles with an eight minute pace simultaneously. Know that wouldn't be a big deal for many, but I found it difficult to break-through that plateau.

Anyway, that's at least one NY resolution reached.

Anyone else reach any personal bests in their running program recently?

Personal Records are amazing. If anyone needs inspiration its the PR. Every time you race you can compare your times (just don't compare hilly to flat, bad idea). When you see your improvement in a few weeks time, its easier (to me at least) than seeing the change in muscle tone. That and it leaves a great feeling; I want to come back the next day and get better.

Im about to do my first marathon in a few weeks so that will be my personal best. Longest training run til now was 18.2 miles a week or so ago so i guess thats my personal best. Not really worried about times so much as not dying. Good luck all!!

Runsupport saidIm about to do my first marathon in a few weeks so that will be my personal best.

Good luck on your race.

Just a couple tips from my first, and only, marathon. Be prepared to "hit the wall". I wasn't and when it happened to me I was at mile 24 panicking that I was not going to be able to finish the race. I wish I had been mentally prepared for it.

Make sure if you are doing anything different on race day (which most runners would say is a bad idea), that you have those changes completely thought out. I did all my training runs carrying my own water and using Gu every 45 minutes. I took the Gu with water to help me swallow it down. During the race I relied on the water stations instead of carrying water. Well, the water stations didn't line up with the times I wanted to take the Gu. I got off schedule and missed taking the Gu twice, which I think played a role in me hitting the wall.

Thanks Mad. My only worry is that i havent been training as much as id like due the cold weather (40 is cold here in florida). Id like to get up to at least a 22 miler in before the two week mark but it may not happen. Under 4 hours is the goal.

That's awesome to hear everyone has their accomplishments. I am a marathon coach and competitive runner in Minneapolis. I totally understand where everyone is coming from with PR. I hoping to qualify for Boston at my marathon in June. I'm averaging 60-70 miles a week of running now. I've been running all winter outside when it has reached -4. If anyone needs advice with running or anything hit me up.

5 Mile PR is 34:35 (6:55 pace) run last Thanksgiving.10K PR is 44:19 (7:10 pace) run last October.

I guess they're not too bad for 50. I'm really hoping to get my 5K time under 20 min this year.

20K PR was something like78 min (6:20 pace) back when I was 24. Now I couldn't run 20K to save my life.

I'm going to follow Brad Hudson's adaptive training method when I go for my sub 18 this Fall. He's got some good ideas and is worth looking into if you're not familiar with him. His book is called "Run Faster from the 5k to the Marathon."

Other than that my personal experience with the 20 minute 5k barrier is that it's more psychological than anything else. Once your brain knows you can do it your body won't disappoint you.